Sander Thoenes

Sander Thoenes (November 7, 1969 – September 21, 1999) was a Dutch journalist who was killed in Dili, East Timor, while covering arrival of the peacekeeping troops with the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET).

Thoenes was born in Enschede, the Netherlands, the youngest of three brothers [http://www.memorialforsander.org/hislife/index.html [1] . He was educated at Gymnasium St. Jacobus college in Enschede (1981-1987) and studied English literature and modern Russian history at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA (1987-1992). Thoenes was awarded the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation's "genius" award and studied at the Centre for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco. He learned to speak and write Russian fluently during his tenure at Hampshire College. He moved to Moscow in August, 1992, and worked for the English language paper Moscow Times, the Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland, and served as correspondent for U.S. News and World Report in 1995. He reported from Chechnya in 1995. In 1996 he moved to Almaty, Kazakhstan, and covered Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan for the Financial Times. In September, 1997 he moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, and worked as correspondent for the Financial Times. There he covered the Asian Financial Crisis and the fall of President Suharto. He received the Freedom of Press Award in 2000 from the Washington D.C. based National Press Club (NPC).

Australian-led UN peace keepers found Thoenes’ body with fatal gunshot wounds in the back yard of a house near the East Timorese capital of Dili [http://www.angelfire.com/rock/hotburrito/thoenes/barr230999.html [2] .

Florindo Araujo, a motorcycle driver who was transporting Thoenes on the day of his shooting, told reporters he was stopped by at least six men wearing gray Indonesian police uniforms at a roadblock while on route to Becora, a suburb of Dili. Araujo said he and Thoenes turned around and were pursued by the police. They opened fire, brought the motorcycle down and continued to shoot. Araujo said the last time he saw Thoenes, he was lying on the road [http://www.angelfire.com/rock/hotburrito/thoenes/bbc220999.html [3] . He was 30 years old.

His death marked the first time a foreign reporter died in East Timor since 1975 [http://www.angelfire.com/rock/hotburrito/thoenes/barr230999.html [4] .

The Financial Times offers the Sander Thoenes Prize each year to recent graduates working in journalism [http://www.ft.com/indepth/sanderthoenes [5] . The award includes a three-month internship at the Financial Times headquarters in London, and a scholarship to cover living expenses.

The Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club (JFCC) announced a scholarship fund in his honor on September 7th, 2006 [http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2006/09/09/jfcc-launches-new-website.html [6] . The annual JFCC scholarship is awarded to support the training of East Timorese journalists.

External Links

*http://www.memorialforsander.org/hislife/index.html
*http://www.ft.com/indepth/sanderthoenes